CGCC Intermediate/Advanced Digital Photography Spring '14

Projects

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tammy Kelton

This project has so many possibilities, that it was hard to
decide where to start.

When I think of time and space I think of freezing a segment
of time, be it a second, minute, hour, or longer.I relate it to time machine where you can go
back to any given time you want.A
chance to relive a moment, even if it is only in a memory.Any photo can do that, but what if you took
several photos of a given event and arrange it in a way
that you can relate to it as if it were happening now.

I chose to do this with my project.

I have done three photo montages to give you an idea of my
theory.The first was of an eagle I saw
taking a fish out of the river, the second of a lion yawning, and a sequence of
a full lunar eclipse.

The task of choosing the images was not easy as I had so many
to choose from.After selecting the
images came the process of how I wanted to display them.For the eagle and lion, I elected to place
them in a film strip.Aligning the
photos was a challenge, but the outcome was exactly as I imagined it to
be.

The eclipse was more difficult and took the longest to
do.I had to take each photo and size
them, each one came with their own challenges.The shadow cast upon the moon made it difficult to place and size,
without distorting the image.After many
attempts I feel I got it right.

I really enjoy this type of work and plan to expand upon it
in the future.I have many ideas already
and will start to work on them this summer.

Monday, April 28, 2014

This is just a back up save...

Time and Space

John Anthony Muth

I
love history, all kinds of history, so the Klett and Wolfe project was very
inspirational for me.I wanted to find
old photos of Arizona specifically around the Phoenix metro area and show how
the city has developed over time and that it was close and easy to find,
hopefully.First I searched for Arizona
historical photos on Google and found the ASU library but costs were involved
and they had copyright watermarks everywhere. So I turned to the Library
of Congress who had plenty of photographs with a variety of downloading
options. I thought this assignment might be fairly simple but as I discovered
finding the exact spot where the previous photographer was not so simple and I
don't know what type of camera or lens was used. I plunged into it
anyway and tried to find similar perspectives and brought printed copies of the
photos as well. Needless to say that I don't have the same lens so I took
panoramic images of each site and hoped for the best. I will digitally
transform them to fit as best I can but I'm not sure how to present the changes
in scenery at this time…

As
it turned out I changed almost every photograph into a different type of
layout.Some photos were close to spot
on but others were the wrong angle of perspective so no matter what I did some
images were not going to fit.First
thing I did was to create panoramic of each scene in the “File > Automate
> Photomerge” menu option in Photoshop.Once an automated panoramic came out then I placed my photo and took
either a part of the image like a mountain or maybe a corner of a building and
then reduced opacity to about half to see how everything lines up.I did have to change the panoramic of a
couple of photos because they were just not fitting.I usually had to resize and manipulate one or
both images to make them closely fit (except one photo which was totally off).
Once I had a fit I tried to show both images either by reducing the opacity
and/or masking certain areas to show changes in the landscape or
cityscape.I am relatively happy with
the results but have a much better idea of how to tackle problems of originally
shooting the correct angles and giving myself more time into merging the two
images seamlessly.

My idea of a photo shoot incorporating time and space comes from a combination my love of video games and landscapes and the work of artists Robbie Cooper and Rembrant Quiballo (we learned about him in the notes on the Time & Space project - Movie pans turned into interesting panorama photos). Cooper did a series on gamers and their virtual representations of themselves (Alter Egos) then he turned the camera on kids playing video games (most of which were rated "M" which is
basically the same as an "R" rating for a movie). Gamers share virtual spaces when playing multiplayer games whether cooperatively or competitively at the same time. We also share the experience of having been in the same virtual spaces at different times when we play single player games. We can talk about the first time we exited the escape tunnel in the game Oblivion and looked back at the castle in the distance behind us (just FYI I got goosebumps and choked up). The idea I am trying to express is that to a gamer these virtual spaces become real as shared experiences. As real as the first time a person visits the Grand Canyon or the Eiffel Tower. Also, the project brings up questions. Are gamers in different parts of the world actually experiencing the same space at the same time when playing a multiplayer game? Even if we are separated by "time" in a game (I have nearly finished the main story, but my friend online is in an earlier part of the story) do we share the same time if we are in the same point on the "map" of the virtual world at the same time in the real world? The idea is Confusing to wrap ones mind around. I do not hope to actually answer the questions just get the viewer thinking.

I want to explore for my final project the way of making Panography. Which is a photographic technique in which one picture is assembled from several overlapping photographs. This can be done manually with prints or by using digital image editing software. I want to get back into doing this because I had to try it out in High school and I really like how it turns out. It creates a way of viewing the photos as if you were looking through a fisheye lens almost. The cool thing about doing this type of photography, is that you can do it of anything, from buildings to outdoor. You could even do it of a small detailed subject, like a flower.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY: John Anthony Muth

My final project was inspired by KLETT & WOLFE but also by my love of history. First I searched for Arizona historical photos on Google and found the ASU library but costs were involved and they had copyright watermarks everywhere. So I turned to the Library of Congress which had enough photos after searching for a couple of days and they were free with a variety of downloading options. I thought this assignment might be fairly simple but as I found out finding the exact spot where the previous photographer was was not so simple. Plus the fact I don't know what type of camera or lens was being used. Many time there was no information of the photographer as well. I plunged into it anyway and tried to find similar perspectives and brought printed paper copies of the photos as well (to find the spot). Needless to say that I don't have the right lens or the right camera so I took panoramic pics of each site and hoped for the best. I will digitally transform them to fit as best I can but I'm not sure how to present the changes in scenery at this time. One option is to keep the old photo as is but I am inclined to fade the opacity on parts of the photo and I have a few other ideas as well.

A few weeks ago when Anne mentioned that our final project could be anything we wanted, I got very excited because I have been interested in doing a time lapse for quite a while. When she mentioned that if we wanted, she could give us a theme of Time Space, I felt that my original thought of a time lapse would work perfectly with either my own choice or the theme she gave us.

I also remembered this photograph in a batch of other photographs we were looking at a few weeks back. I immediately loved this image. I had never really thought of time lapse as being one single image. All the time lapse I have ever seen have been turned into short movies. So I began to research time lapse photography.

There is a lot of information out there about this subject and many, many time lapses on U Tube. The following web page "The Ultimate Guide to Time-Lapse Photography" gives some very basic, easy to read and understand time lapse how to information. I especially like how they gave you the basic steps, 1 to 6 and then expounded on the steps below. I feel like even a novice photographer like myself could understand this.

Another web tutorial I found is the one I've posted the URL to below. It's got a beautiful compilation of different time lapses and the music that goes with it is amazing. Even though I have a good idea of what I want to do my time lapse on, it was great to see the list of ideas on the site. Great ideas for future projects!

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

This assignment was a little difficult because as many photo books that I could find on line and as interesting as they may be, most of them did not give you the opportunity to browse through to enjoy the images or the theme. I loved this one however because its a displays the way or ways we all those to live our life. This book is a documentary of all the different people who live in New York City and its quiet amazing to see the variety of cultures, styles, personalities and so forth. There are people of all colors, race, young and old. And even among similar groups, there are many differences. The theme of this photo book is just beautiful and educating. As we go about our day to day lives, we sometimes fail to recognize what is really going on around us until review such material. I like the layout of the book, it's kind of random which bring that feel of mixed differences.

I have been following Humans of New York on Facebook for a few months. Photographer Brandon Stanton's story is as fascinating as those of the people he photographs. He had a short video segment explaining the project (link above) . It begins: "I moved to New York with two suitcases and a goal of taking ten thousand photos." He asks a few questions of people of all ages and ethnicities and backgrounds and includes their answers as captions to the magnificently full of personality photos in his book and on the website. I love the quotes that he gets from his subjects. The funny thing is I wasn't interested in portrait photography necessarily until I started looking at this artist's work.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

World History of Photography; John Anthony Muth

Okay so I found this book on photography and I choose it because it's not that I just want to learn on or two styles of photography but all styles of photography. I love history and it's the reason that people can understand from where they come and where they can go. History gives us avenues that otherwise would not even be identified. History tells us what has happened with the advantage of perspective. Now with most books I like to thumb through them first and read a few excerpts but can do that online at least with this book.

Monday, April 14, 2014

“focuses on the dynamic relationship between the photographer, the subject, and the audience and how that relationship has evolved over time. ” -PBS Arts

I like how this book is all about telling stories through the portraits of people through their expressions and what they wear. I think it is essential to know how to capture someones personality, and not make the person look fake or uncomfortable. In my career that I am working towards, every time an actor auditions we have to hand over a headshot and that picture is supposed to represent that actor's personality and what type of part we fit more towards. So I think it is extremely important to capture the personality of the that person. Even for events and wedding photography you want to look perfect and happy and if you have a good photographer who understands this concept, than you will be happy with the outcome. This video on the book is very interesting on the photographers view on the person and how the person can react to photographers. It also tells why portraits are so important to our society.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Bored Couples - Martin Parr

Richard Avedon: Evidence 1944-1994

This assignment had me a little perplexed. I have yet to figure out how to actually Google a particular photography book and have images of the book show up. The only thing I get are links to where I can purchase the book. I realize I could head to the library and look at photography books, but my week has not allowed such an indulgence. So with this in mind, I am posting two books that I would love to look through.

The first is a book entitled "Bored Couples" by Martin Parr. This book intrigues me because face it, we've all seen what we assumed were bored couples at a restaurant, in the mall, almost everywhere we go. The fact is, these couples may or may not be bored, but through the photograph, we make an assumption. I feel like we go through our lives making assumptions - sometimes good assumptions, sometimes not so good assumptions. You can catch a few glimpses of some of the "bored couples" in Parr's book by going to the website I provided and to me, most of them are funny. A couple of the images gave me the giggles. I think I would enjoy owning this book, it would be quite the conversation piece on my living room table.

The second is a compilation of work by Richard Avedon. Avedon's work intrigues me. We watched a short film last semester that highlighted some of his work and ever since then I want to know more about him. Even though most of what I read about him indicates that he was a fashion and portrait photographer, and neither of those genre's interest me too much, there is still something about his work and the man himself that intrigues me. Even the title of this book is interesting to me. Evidence 1944 - 1994. Evidence that he worked. Evidence that he was talented. Evidence that he lived.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Using Blending modes is a great way to present the theme of Vision and Reality. These images come from one of my favorite contemporary artists in the medium. Richard Johnson of Spectacle Photography has been inspiring me since the start of my journey to become a pro photog. In a Facebook message conversation we had, he said 99.9% of his images use some form of blending mode. He used screen mode for fire in this series, it is used very well to create the images. The pictures in this series used physical make up effects and photoshop digital effects to create a creepy, eerie, portrait of burn victims/smoke monsters.

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/elements/fake-layer-mask/
The thing that most intrigues me about this blended image is that it feels like they fit together so perfectly with the girl on the left looking at the little girl blowing the dandelion fuzz. When you look closer the little girls hand is blended differently that you can see because her hand is blurry and blue.
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/photo-blend/

I really love the look of this blended images. It looks like an engagement or wedding style photographs of a lovely couple. I also like how the two pictures were edited to the same color of sepia. This picture just reminds me of a Nicholas Sparks book cover.

I feel like the demand is high for people looking to have their photos edited more and more these days. From movie covers and book cover, to special occasions edited photos are the way to go.

Monday, March 31, 2014

I have no idea what the assigned blog was this week so I decided to share something I heard today as well as an image that changed my life. Around the year 2000 I discovered the Hubble Space Telescopes web site and on that site was the"Deep Field View" (1999). This image was viewed on the couch while surfing the internet on the "Dreamcast" video game system. My buddy and I starred at this view for well over 10 minutes in just utter amazement of what we were seeing. Most of these images are galaxies, each galaxy is made of many billions of stars... We were literally looking at trillions of stars in one photo, I can begin to describe my feelings of being a part of something so much more magnificent than I had ever felt before...

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/02/image/a/

Earlier today I was listening to the philosopher-theologian Alan Watts. Alan had said something completely profound and life changing as well.

“It is not true you came into this world… You came out of it. The same way as a flower comes out of a plant or a fruit comes out of a tree. As an apple tree apples, the solar system in which we live and therefore the galaxy in which we live and therefore the system of galaxies in which we live, that system,,, peoples. Therefore people are an expression of it’s energy and of it’s nature”.

The following image is the Hubble's "Ultra Deep Field View" (2004). Both images were taken from a part of the sky that had no visible stars and left there, shutter open, long exposure about the size of 1/10 of the moon, or if your hand was held out, the size of a fingernail.

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/image/b/

We are the fruit of the universe and we should never underestimate what we are and what we've always been...

With the birth of technology and digital photography, images can be made to look practically any how we want it to look. Of course there is good and bad in every thing. In some instances, those images are quite fun to see and they have good entertainment value. Unfortunately, there are times that these images have a sinister element to it and can cause a whole lot of issues to individuals or groups. There are also times that these images can bring a lot of good, for instance, they can or may convey a positive message or even great advertisement. All in all, the ability to put these images together is a great tool if not misused. I guess it's like most things in life.

After searching the internet for quite a long time for examples of blended photography, this photo is the only one I found that closely depicts what I have in mind for my project. I am using an old window pane that I found at Habitat for Humanity instead of a mirror, but the idea is the same. I am going to try and depict photographs in the window that do not relate to the surrounding area outside of the window pane. My challenge has been finding images and scenery to shoot that do not relate but still will be interesting to the viewer. Since I am going to LA for a couple of days this week, of course I plan to bring my camera and take advantage of the different environment. :-)

While doing my research, I came across this article (link below) that was really eye opening to me. I hadn't really thought that I was so naive about photographs that I see in magazines or online, but I guess I was. In the article, "Getting the Image You See in Your Head" by Rick Berk, the photograph of the rock arch and beautiful sky are stunning. The colors of the surrounding landscape and the exposure are perfect. After reading about his process of achieving this perfection, I was enlightened. He blended photographs to achieve this photographic perfection. I've read National Geographic and Phoenix Home and Garden magazine, and I've seen many similarly beautiful photographs. I am always amazed at the skill that it must take to shoot such gorgeous pictures. Now I know that it's not always just skill with the camera, but also skill with Photoshop.

http://www.modny73.com/artwork/photography/50-mind-blowing-images-of-reflective-photography/For my Vision and Reality project I want to explore the world in reflections. I want to try and find reflections in things that you wouldn't think to look at and objects you look at everyday in life. I haven't decided if I just want to do reflections in water or just any object yet, but I know I want to show many different subjects in the reflections. I even found a cool website that helps with how to take reflections in water. I might try to recreate one of the pictures up above in different ways if possible. For example I have taken pictures of little water drops, but I never thought to see if there was a reflection in it. I wanted to know how some reflections are caught since lots of reflections are just caught by mistake, without even thinking about it. "Tips: Remember your choices: the subject and its reflection; just the reflection; still water; and blurred water. Direct light on water creates glare – you want the direct light to fall on your subject which is then reflected in water which is in the shade. If there is glare, you can use a polarizing filter to reduce or even remove it.Try using a graduated neutral density filter. Usually the reflection is a couple of stops darker than the main subject so you can use a graduated neutral density filter to even things out. If you don't have one, you can always try the digital equivalent in Lightroom or Photoshop. But remember the reflection part of the image should still be slightly darker. If you make it as bright as the main subject the image will not look right."http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-reflections-in-water
I found these tips to be very helpful when trying to take water reflections.